Have fun with 4RinEU cookbook and learn about the most innovative solutions to make your home more efficient and comfortable 

Renovating buildings can boost their value and add comfort to the life of the residents. Over the past five years, the EU-funded project 4RinEU developed and tested cutting-edge renovation packages to make refurbishments cheaper and easier. 

The cookbook explains 4RinEU concept in six recipes where energy efficiency technologies are the main ingredients. The booklet is designed for students, but also for curious people willing to learn how deep renovation can affect their homes and their lives in an easy-to-understand language, free from technical jargon.  

Download 4RinEU cookbook and find the right solution for your taste and your budget! The cookbook is available in four languages (English, Italian, Spanish, and German).

Discover 4RinEU recipes to renovate your home: 

Download 4RinEU cookbook in English 

Scarica il ricettario di 4RinEU in italiano 

Descargar el libro de recetas de 4RinEU en español 

4RinEU Kochbuch in deutscher Sprache herunterladen 

4RinEU partner Thermics invites you to discover the hydraulic module developed within the 4RinEU Project on Friday 11th of June 2021

The NRGate Box is a wall-mounted hydraulic module that in its complete version allows to produce Sanitary Hot Water and to manage the water used by the heating and cooling system. The NRGate Box can either serve one housing unit or can be used with other units to supply a whole building with several housing units.  The unit calculates the thermal energy required and provides a certified measure of the energy impact of each housing unit. The ease of hydraulic, electrical and communication installation makes the NRGate Box a so-called Plug&Play module.

The R&D activity behind the NRGate Box by Thermics Energie is part of the EU-funded project 4RinEU, involving 15 companies and institutions from four different European countries. The NRGate Box has been thoroughly tested by the laboratory of Eurac Research in Bolzano, Italy, and the first 13 modules have been installed in Pinerolo (TO) as a final part of a Demo Case to test its characteristics in the field. The data obtained have confirmed the potential of the NRGate Box and a large amount of data is still being collected moment by moment, confirming the versatility, robustness and potential of the solution.

Scarica l’agenda in italiano

Date and time: 11.06.2021 from 14:30h to 18:30h CEST

Location: AC Service srl, Via Lurisia 17 – Moncalieri (TO)

Language: Italian

Speakers:

• Stefano Mauro
• Cristian Visentin
• Anastasia Presiren

Local parners:

• Francesco Fotino
• AC Service Srl

Objective:
– explain the technical features of the NRGate Box
– list the features of the unit
– show the aspects related to design and plant supervision
– Potentially interested market and users

Programme

• 15:30-16:00 Registration and welcome
• 16:00-16:20 Company presentation
• 16:20-16:40 Introduction of the course topics and short presentation of the 4RinEU project
• 16:40-17:15 Meeting Part I
• 17:15-17:20 Coffee break
• 17:20-18:00 Meeting Part II
• 18:00-18:30 Introduction to the user and maintenance manual
• 18:30-18:45 Market analysis and potential
• 18:45-19:00 Questions
• 19:00-19:30 Refreshments

Info and registration: please write an email to utec@thermics-energie.it and c.visentin@thermics-energie.it

4RinEU partner IES organises a webinar on the practical aspects of handling monitoring data that is collected during the process of the analysis of a building performance. The webinar will take place on June 16th, 2021 from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM CEST

Monitoring data has a variety of uses at different stages of the building life, from the preparation of a renovation to the optimal operation of a building in use. Once a monitoring system has been installed on a building, and the on-site data collection is available, the data needs to be handed over for further purposes, including visualisation. The training will focus on this phase of the data handling, presenting firstly the connection of data sources to iSCAN, with a specific focus on the API capabilities. Once the data has been imported and structured in iSCAN, it can be used to create custom dashboards. In the second part of the training, focus will be on the connection to iDashboards, and the use of this tool to create visualisations through different widgets.

Agenda:

• 9 BST (10 CET): Welcome, introduction
  
• 9.15 BST (10.15 CET): Training: connecting data to iSCAN
  
• 10.15 BST (11.15 CET): Q&A
• 10.30 BST (11.30 CET): Break
• 11 BST (12 CET): Training: visualising monitoring data
  
• 11.15 BST (12.15 CET): Training: creating visualisations
  
• 11.45 BST (12.45 CET): Q&A and wrap up

Practical information:

• Date: Wednesday, 16th June
• Time: 9am – 12pm BST (including 30 min break)
• Cost: Free
• Trainer: Mario Ragusini, IES

Further information and registration

Online workshop | 25th of June from 9:00 to 11:00

4RinEu will contribute to this year’s WSED European Energy Efficiency Conference with an online workshop dedicated to professionals in the renovation industry.

During the workshop, participants will have the chance to test 4RinEU rating tool, developed to guide users early in their decision process with a focus on improving the energy-efficiency potential and reducing the impact of the renovation project.

Title of the workshop: Deep renovation of residential buildings made easy

Chairperson: Roberto Lollini, Institute for Renewable Energy, Eurac Research – Italy

Agenda:

1. 4RinEU approach to building renovation (15 minutes)
   Roberto Lollini, Institute for Renewable Energy, Eurac Research – Italy
2. Innovative set of solutions for deep energy renovation of buildings (30 minutes)
   Riccardo Pinotti, Institute for Renewable Energy, Eurac Research – Italy
3. Supporting decision-making in deep renovation projects: 4RinEU rating tool (15 minutes)
   Adrian Werner, SINTEF – Norway
4. Guided demo of 4RinEU rating tool based on real time feedback from the audience (30 minutes)
   Adrian Werner, SINTEF – Norway
5. Open Q&A session and feedback for further development of the tool (15 minutes)
6. Implementation in real environment

• • 4RinEU demo case in Norway (15 minutes)
    Kari Thunshelle, SINTEF – Norway
  • 4RinEU demo case in the Netherlands (15 minutes)
    Chiel Boonstra, Trecodome – The Netherlands

Participation to the innovation workshops is free upon registration. Check the programme and register now!

Cover photo created by freepik – www.freepik.com

A two-day free online course for planners and manufacturing companies organised by Gumpp & Maier – 20 and 21 May 2021

Prefabricated timber-framed elements offer a cost-effective solution to renovate buildings and reduce energy consumption. Within the 4RinEU project, Gumpp & Maier GmbH (Germany) worked together with partners from research and practice like Eurac Research (Italy), Sintef (Norway) and Aderma Locatelli (Italy) to renovate three demo cases and assess this method on buildings with different characteristics and in different climate zones.

The façade modules with integrated service components were applied to the pre-existing façades to create a second shell. The planning, execution and assembly of the elements followed a digital standardised workflow that allows to find the most suitable solutions depending on the building’s needs.

In this training course for planners, manufacturing companies and other interested parties in the construction value chain, Gumpp & Maier GmbH will present the results of the 4RinEU project and will share the knowledge gained in many years of experience in the field of building renovation with prefabricated timber construction elements.

The two-day online training will provide you with the basics to be able to plan or execute this renovation method yourself.

The first part of the training deals in particular with the technical background, the development within the framework of 4RinEU and the planning of the elements. There will be interactive tasks that are worked on together in order to internalise the planning of prefabricated timber-frame elements for building renovation.

The second part deals with the practical implementation of building renovation from prefabrication and transport to assembly and commissioning. The explanations are practically illustrated by demo projects, including those from the 4RinEU project.

The course material and a recording of the webinars will be provided to participants after the sessions.

Download the agenda

PRACTICAL INFORMATION

Day and time: May 20^th, 2021 from 13:30 to 16:00 and May 21^st, 2021 from 9:30 to 12:00

The course is free of charge upon registration. To register, please write an email to info@gumpp-maier.de by the 18^th of May 2021. Attendance is limited to 20 participants.

Please note: The course will be held entirely in German. Questions can also be asked and answered in English if needed.

For further information, please contact:
Maximilian Schlehlein, Gumpp & Maier GmbH, Structural Design, Research & Development
email: m.schlehlein@gumpp-maier.de
Tel: +49 8272 9985 287
www.gumpp-maier.de

As European buildings are responsible for 36% of CO2 emissions, the subject of deep renovation of buildings has become central in its role for making Europe climate neutral by 2050. Henceforth, there is a compelling need for a new set of skills to deep renovation projects. 4RinEU MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) offers to new professionals in the construction sector a comprehensive set of lessons and training materials to develop such skills.

The course introduces the basics of deep renovation in residential buildings, though some modules are applicable to any kind of building. The student will be able to get a grasp of energy efficiency in buildings, and how to achieve a deep renovation project based on passive and active technologies.

4RinEU course is intended to teach and form a new generation of skilled practitioners of the deep area of sustainable built environment. It welcomes students of any built environment discipline and overall, any professionals in the built environment (designers, engineers, architects, researchers, developers, contractors, facility managers).

The effort also included the framing within the European multilingual classification of Skills, Competences and Occupations (ESCO) as well as Universal Design for Learning principles.

The course is structured in 6 weeks:

• Week 1 – Towards 2050 Carbon Neutrality: the role of energy efficiency in buildings
• Week 2 – Building envelope: prefabricated multifunctional façade
• Week 3 – Building performance calculation and data analysis: definition, procedure, data flow and results representation and analysis
• Week 4 – Deep renovation process: supporting decision
• Week 5 – Integration of renewables: early design methodology for renewables
• Week 6 – Lessons learnt from case studies

Go to 4RinEU Massive Open Online Course

Thermal comfort, indoor air quality and daylight are key factors in the comfort of building occupants. Despite the interconnection of these aspects and the related requirements, the way to achieve indoor air quality and thermal comfort are not clear enough in some EU countries. This situation underlines the importance of addressing the topic of Building Operation, which is crucial for ensuring adequate comfort and quality levels and at the same time achieving effective energy efficiency.

The difference between the anticipated and actual performance of buildings is known as the performance gap, and it has been observed often that the actual energy performance of buildings after their completion, is not as good as the expected one during design. This performance gap –the difference between expected and actual energy performance- is often related to the user behavior of the building occupants. In addition, when performing deep renovation of buildings, the design and construction processes also face this challenge.  For instance, the ALDREN project has found that out of the 34 different national and regional implementations of the Energy Performance of Building Directive (EPBD), the calculated primary energy indicator after renovation could vary from 73 kWh/m² to 5 kWh/m². This is of great concern, especially when deep renovation are aiming at least 60% energy demand reduction.

As a way of reducing the performance gap, close attention is being given to building automation in the operational phase of buildings. In broad terms, building automation typically involves a number of automatic controls for heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, lighting, access control, energy management, fire alarms and other controls with the aim to better control the building’s systems. Building automation may involve the use of an electronic building management system (BMS), and buildings fitted with such systems are often called smart buildings. For HVAC systems, building automation systems can deliver critical information on the operational performance of a building as well as enhancing the safety and comfort of the occupants and contributing to energy efficiency.

[…] The 4RinEU project is currently testing a state-of-the-art building automation prototype to aid deep renovation via the development and testing of the Plug and Play Energy Hub. The Italian demo case  uses a hydronic module that can be connected in series/parallel allowing control and monitoring of complex heating and cooling systems, integrating available renewable energy sources (solar thermal) to improve the match between thermal energy demand and production. The Plug and Play Energy Hub system is controlled by an integrated digital controller providing (a) the supply of space heating and instantaneous domestic hot water when connected to a hot water source; and (b) the provision of an account of thermal energy consumed by the final user, distinguishing between domestic hot water and space heating. In this case, building automation and passive measures for energy efficiency are expected to have a significant impact on the heating consumption.

Read the full article on BuildUP

In indoor environments, human thermal comfort is affected by four physical quantities: air temperature, mean radian temperature, relative humidity, and air speed. The mean radiant temperature depends on the temperature of the surfaces around a person, and it is usually combined with the air temperature into a unique value called operative temperature.

Thermal comfort and air movement: how does it work?

In warm and hot conditions, thermal comfort is linked to the capability of heat dissipation of the human body. Keeping it simple, this depends on the temperature and humidity difference between the skin and the surrounding environments (hence, how much heat can be exchanged), and on coefficients that tell the rate at which the heat and moisture can be exchanged (hence, how fast heat can be exchanged).

Highly energy-consuming systems such as air conditioners are used to decrease the temperature below a certain value. This value could be simply set by a user or taken from international standards that give operative temperature thresholds. Hence, these systems keep a person comfortable by increasing the amount of heat that can be released from the body to the environments.

On the other hand, elevated air movement can be used to make the heat-exchange process faster: as the air near the body becomes warm and humid, it is quickly replaced by drier and cooler air. Thus, fans keep a person comfortable by increasing the speed at which heat that can be released from the body to the environments.

Smart ceiling fans: achieving the same level of comfort using less energy

Air conditioners are usually designed to guarantee a certain comfort level such as having 90% of the people satisfied with the thermal environments. Since a precise set-point temperature can be set, this appears to be a straightforward task. On the other hand, fans apparently offer fewer assurance. However, within 4RinEU, a novel smart ceiling fan has been developed to address this issue: ensuring a well-defined level of comfort considering the environmental and personal conditions at a specific point in time.

The system is made by a common ceiling fan that can be controlled remotely, and a remote-control unit that includes the temperature and relative humidity sensors, and the control algorithm. This algorithm:

• takes temperature and relative humidity as an input,
• calculates the air speed needed to ensure thermal comfort (90% satisfaction) in warm and hot conditions (26°C – 34°C) for three different activity levels, namely relaxed, seated, and active such as house cleaning, and
• automatically adapts the rotational speed of the ceiling fan.

This algorithm has been developed by Eurac researchers starting from the available literature-based evidence, and it was then implemented into a commercial product by the Italian company Vortice. The final output is a product that can ensure occupants’ thermal comfort while significantly reducing the use of energy and hence related CO2 emissions.

Early-RENo is an early design tool under development thanks to our project 4RinEU. It consists of a set of methodologies developed by Eurac Research and Aiguasol which aims to support the designers in the first phases of the renovation projects. It covers four important topics: photovoltaic, solar collectors, natural ventilation and daylighting. Since one of our goals is to guarantee a user-friendly approach, we are working on a graphical user interface (GUI).

The goal
The goal of the GUI is to simplify the use of the tool and connect the four modules implemented. In our concept, each module will have an independent tab sharing information with the others, giving the possibility of running the complete algorithm or to select a methodology-specific calculation optimizing time resources. In this way, the modularity of Early-RENo allows the user to focus on the interesting resources which can be case-specific and becomes an important aspect of the design process. For example, it will be possible to refine a single optimization without re-running all the other modules. Finally, the intent is to extend the user range also to designers with limited computer expertise.

Let’s see how the user interface is organized
As explained before, the GUI reflects the modularity of Early-RENo. It is divided in six tabs, one for each module, one for interfacing our tool with Radiance and one for general inputs:

1. Settings: the user can select which module(s) will be used in the next calculation, select the inputs file (e.g. weather file) and insert the inputs which are common for all the modules. Moreover, here it is possible to launch the algorithm and export the automatic report
2. Irradiance: this tab shows the results of the hourly irradiance calculated with Radiance. It is possible to choose which sensor the results refer
3. Photovoltaic: here it is possible to insert the inputs required for the photovoltaic optimization. At the end of the calculation it will be displayed a plot of the economic analysis and the most important results
4. Solar thermal: the same as in the tab related to photovoltaic. In this case the plot shows the monthly energy consumption and production
5. Natural ventilation: here it would be possible to choose the final use of the building (residential, office, etc.) and all the other inputs needed for exploiting natural ventilation
6. Daylighting: this tab is the interface for our daylighting module. Here the user will insert the required inputs and at the end of the calculations the most relevant plots and results will be shown

User experience
At the opening, Early-RENo displays the settings tab where it will be asked which modules the user wants to launch. Once all the inputs required will be filled, the optimization can be launched with the Start button. At the end of each calculation, Early-RENo tells the user if the run was successfully completed. Finally, an automatic report which summarizes the inputs and the results can be exported with the dedicated button. This functionality was added to give the possibility of tracking in a better way the workflow of the design process.

The user interface is actually in test phase but has already been used in different studies, so we are confident that we will soon be able to share positive news with you!

The Sensible Building Data Handler is the 4RinEU answer to the need to gather, organise and prepare for analysis the large amount of data that is needed in the various phases of a deep renovation project.

As a first step in a deep renovation process, the auditor goes on-site to collect basic information on the status of the building as-is, to be able to get an accurate baseline of the building’s performance ahead of the deep renovation design. This as-is data collection is an important step, as often the technical drawings available are obsolete and only portray the original construction design version of the building, which may have changed during construction, and then in-use. Thus, the auditor needs to make note, for example, of the actual location of the heating vents; or perhaps, record the actual make and model of the boiler, which has been substituted in the years since construction.

The amount of data that an auditor collects in this phase can easily become significantly large and difficult to manage; this results in inefficient auditing, as well as the risk of the auditor losing relevant information along the way.  The 4RinEU solution to this common issue is the Auditing App, included in the Data Handler. Developed by IES with user friendliness in mind, this Android app allows to create and manage multiple auditing projects, acting as a digital notebook for the auditor on-site. Users can load available technical drawings in the app, and then add pins with photos and notes on the drawings to keep track of all their notes in context. For each project, users can also create project specific checklists to keep track of tasks onsite, and of key steps and data points required for  specific auditing processes. This feature in particular will allow the app to integrate with the 4RinEU auditing protocol that ADERMA is developing within the project. In the upcoming months, IES, R2M and SINTEF will work together on defining the best format to structure the collected data into a report to showcase the results of the auditing process.

Another major aspect of deep renovation data is the collection of monitoring data, both for the pre-renovation state of the building and the post-renovation performance. This data can be used in the dynamic modelling of the deep renovation project to ensure that the virtual behaviour of the building represents correctly its real status, but also to evaluate the efficacy of the renovation after it’s completed.

While the Auditing App is best suited for single information points, managing monitoring data requires secure cloud solutions. For this, ADERMA and Eurac Research have deployed a monitoring infrastructure in the 4RinEU pilots which collects all data (pre- and post-retrofit) into a single database. This database is connected to the IES cloud, and will be displayed through custom dashboards to the users. These will be developed according to the specific requirements of each Demo-Case, to provide the information that they need; for example, visualise the energy and comfort performance of the building in a clear and graphically appealing way.